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#GoodbyePhilae: mosaic poster generated from the 'postcards' sent to Philae

A few weeks ago we invited the public to say goodbye to the lander Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – the response was overwhelming! For some weeks, under the cross-platform hashtag #GoodbyePhilae, we collected the goodbyes you sent to Philae on Comet 67P. On Twitter and Instagram alone, the hashtag reached 47 million users – almost 7000 people around the world took part in the campaign to say farewell to the first man-made object to land on a comet. read more

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Some members of the Philae lander team at the DLR Lander Control Center in Cologne.

+++ Update: Thank you for all the great pictures and wishes you sent to Philae. You can find all photos in our flickr-Gallery. We also produced a video from these pictures: +++

12 November 2014 would have been an otherwise unremarkable day on Earth were it not for the historic event that took place – for the first time ever, humankind landed on the surface of a comet. Well actually, it was the robot lander Philae who touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 17:09 CET. On 27 July 2016, the Electrical Support System (ESS) on Rosetta, which is used to communicate with Philae, will be switched off to save energy before September 30, the day the Rosetta mission will come to an end.

The robot lander Philae made it into history books: he didn’t just land on a comet, he also told the world about it as he did it – another first! He reported the landing, step by step, in real time, making everyone a part of his mission. His landing tweet "Touchdown! My new address: 67P" was retweeted more than 36,000 times, and he has 448,000 followers on Twitter (@Philae2014). We know that the little robot has a place in the hearts of many – to this day, his twitter account is filled with messages of hope and concern for his well-being.

We invite you all to help us and our partners say goodbye to Philae. But how? read more

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One year ago today, the Philae lander touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This was no easy task, of course. With the Rosetta mission, it was demonstrated that it was not only possible to travel to a comet more than 500 million kilometres from Earth, but also to follow it in its orbit around the Sun and land on it. read more

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Philae's landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (#CometLanding) on 12 November 2014 was a historic moment – the first time in the history of space exploration that a spacecraft landed on a comet. Millions of people across the world followed the Rosetta mission via the Internet. read more

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Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

A model of the comet's shape, based on the images acquired on 14 July 2014.

Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. These images, with a resolution of 100 metres per pixel, were acquired with the OSIRIS scientific imaging system on board Rosetta. The comet's neck region – the section connecting the two heads – seems to be much brighter than the head and body of the nucleus. read more

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will explore the origins of the Solar System by studying Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, one of its oldest and most primordial bodies. The mission consists of an orbiter and the Philae lander. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has played a significant role in the development of Philae and operates the Lander Control Centre in Cologne. DLR is preparing for and will manage the difficult, daring and, never before attempted. landing on the comet nucleus.
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377 days remain, just over one year– quite a significant amount of time. Considering that the duration of the mission up to landing is 3906 days, this is merely the final10 percent of a 10-year-long journey through interplanetary space.
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Scientists often use abbreviations to designate their missions or projects; examples are MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) or SHEFEX (Sharp Edged Flight Experiment). But ESA’s Rosetta mission, which will mark a first in the history of space exploration by becoming the first spacecraft to follow a comet and carry a lander that will touch down on the comet, was given its name for a different reason. The name refers to the Rosetta Stone, which allowed hieroglyphs to be deciphered.
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